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I sat down with Mike “The Monkey” Senften of 4DThieves to talk about his latest 3D masterpiece, Ecko Artifaks. In the interview, Mike talks about the overall scope and design of the project and about how he pulled off some of these silky smooth animations. We also get some behind the scenes about the techniques used to make the spot. Mike used just about every tool at his disposal to to get such a varied look for these spots including Cinema 4D, Mograph, Pyrocluster, Trapcode Particular, Meta Balls, Sketch And Toon, MoDynamics, Time Tracks, Trapcode Sound Keys, and multiple destruction tools for the final scene.

Thanks again to The Monkey for doing this interview. Mike has been a big part of teaching me Cinema4D though his generous posts and scene files over at Mograph.net. I’m hoping to get him back on Greyscalegorilla for more interviews and maybe even some tutorials. With his incredible technical skill, design ability, and a name like “The Monkey” he is bound to show back up.

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ronn Trevino

Nick I totally missed seeing your presentation at NAB this year. I was bummed, I did however stumble on Mikes Presentation and was blown away. It might have been on Tuesday, any how, Mike was very informative and we spoke afterwards. and Im still racking my brain on Time Tracks with C4D. I would love to see a total work flow Tutorial with C4D and Time Tracks even with something like his opening RAW UNCUT “sketch and Toon” open. I get the inheritance effector I but things like Sound Effector or even SoundKeys in AE are kinda stumping me. took me forever to figure out how to add a time track.. hehe.. great interview! nice work.

illd

Hey man! Great interview!
I was wondering if you know how many people worked on the project and how it was accomplished… Like Mike being the creative/art director, and/or doing the most technical part and then delegating more detail-level parts… or viseversa?

I developed the concept and the technical approach for each section. Davis made most all of the 3D models. I developed each look, time sequence, and animated each of the 5 sections in C4D. James stitched the sections together and added final FX in AE.

Both Davis and James are fantastic animators and I had planned on each of us taking equal parts, but both of them were pulled away (multiple times) to work on other projects. In the end it kind of became my baby, but both Davis and James were crucial to the piece turning out as well as it did.

I can`t figure out ,how to install plugins in to R11.5 .The only plugins that showed up for me is c4d star plug and realflow plugin.I have tryed a bunch of plugins folowing the instructions but non of them shows up when I open plugin meniu.Can anyone help me to find out ,whats wrong? Recenty I have got the xplode and xbreaker plugs.I have them unziped and copied in to plugins folder,but as I said- non of them work

chris

hey there
first of all u guys are the best
i just got a technical question about plane effector,
in blue part where spray cans flip to cityscape everything scales up and then goes back to original size.
Any clue on that one? I got it to flip my objects and i like it but scaling leaves objects scaled up, how do i get them to go back to original size after flip?

keep up great work, i’m so happy to find your page
it’s more than tutorials.

nehale

Great interview, Monkey, a slower more detailed tutorial about time tracks and the sound effector would really be awesome, I watched your NAB presentation and couldn’t catch a thing you said but I knew I liked it, and can you also show how to use the scrips that were provided there.

Hernan

Gerry

Where is the monkey? Havent seen or heard from him, nothing on the interwebs since about 2010. Anybody know anything. Such a powerful talent shouldnt be lost.
And Nick, thanks for reminding us about him again.

Michael

This is super helpful, more from the Monkey for sure! Great piece of work and very helpful in going through the specifics and techniques. I hungry to learn and these videos are great resources for pushing people like me further.

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This is a friendly community. Please treat everyone with respect. We don't all have to agree, but we do have to be nice. Criticism is fine, but rude comments and name calling will be deleted. Use your real name and don't be spammy. Thanks for adding to the conversation.

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